The over 800-year-old Basilica of Saint-Denis in France was heavily vandalised this week, with vandals smashing stained glass windows and severely damaging the nearly 200-year-old organ.

The destruction was discovered on Sunday morning by the basilica’s organist, who found that the engine of the organ had been damaged along with other parts of the massive instrument, designed between 1834 and 1841, Le Parisien reports.

Saadia Tamelikecht, head of the departmental unit of architecture and heritage of the heavily migrant-populated Seine-Saint-Denis suburbs, said the damage to the instrument, which has been recognised as a historic monument of significance in France, was major.